New Metcash fight with ACCC

Grocery wholesaler
Metcash
appears headed for another stoush with the competition regulator over a supermarket site in Queensland.

Metcash, which won a long battle against the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission over its $215 million acquisition of Franklins last year, asked the ACCC to block
Woolworths
’ acquisition of a supermarket site in Logan Village near Brisbane.

But the ACCC, which is scrutinising more than a dozen acquisitions by Woolworths under “creeping acquisition" laws, said it had no plans to intervene.

Woolworths property development arm, Fabcot, plans to buy the site, partially demolish the shopping centre and build a new supermarket and speciality stores.

Metcash said the move would reduce competition by increasing Woolworths’ market share in the area to more than 80 per cent and by threatening the future of an IGA retailer in the shopping centre.

If the proposed development proceeds, Woolworths would operate four of the six supermarkets in the Logan-Jimboomba area, Metcash claims.

“Metcash is very concerned about the impact that any acquisition of this site will have on competition in the local supermarket market, if it is allowed to proceed," Metcash’s lawyers told the ACCC.

“It is Metcash’s view that any acquisition by Woolworths would lead to a less competitive outcome for consumers who shop within this market," Metcash said.